Born in New York City, Lyonel Feininger lived in Germany, his parent's homeland, for most of his life. After a brief stay in Paris in 1911, Feininger embraced Cubism, declaring that "What one sees must be transformed in the mind and crystallized." However, he preferred to call his style "prism-ism," saying it was "based upon the principle of monumentality." While living in Weimar in 1913, Feininger began exploring such nearby villages as Grosse-Kromsdorf, the subject of this painting. Attracted to the town's medieval architecture, he spent hours studying its churches and other structures to find "the secret of their form."